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About New Science

Barely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is an astonishingly perceptive and ambitious attempt to decipher the history, mythology and laws of the ancient world. Discarding the Renaissance notion of the classical as an idealised model for the modern, it argues that the key to true understanding of the past lies in accepting that the customs and emotional lives of ancient Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, Jews and Babylonians were radically different from our own. Along the way, Vico explores a huge variety of topics, ranging from physics to poetics, money to monsters, and family structures to the Flood. Marking a crucial turning-point in humanist thinking, New Science has remained deeply influential since the dawn of Romanticism, inspiring the work of Karl Marx and even influencing the framework for Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

ProlegomenaIntroductionChapter 1. Wisdom in GeneralChapter 2. Introduction to Poetic Wisdom and its DivisionsChapter 3. The Universal Flood and the Giants

Section 1. Poetic MetaphysicsChapter 1. Poetic Metaphysics as the Origin of Poetry, Idolatry, Divination, and SacrificesChapter 2. Corollaries on the Principal Aspects of the New Science

Section 2. Poetic LogicChapter 1. Poetic LogicChapter 2. Corollaries on Poetic Figures of Speech, Monsters, and MetamorphosesChapter 3. Corollaries on the Speech in Poetic Archetypes of the First NationsChapter 4. Corollaries on the Origins of Languages and Letters; Including the Origins of Hieroglyphics, Laws, Names, Family Arms, Medals, and Money; and the Origins of the First Language and Literature of the Natural Law of NationsChapter 5. Corollaries on the Origins of Poetic Style, Digressions, Inversions, Prose Rhythm, Song, and VerseChapter 6. Further CorollariesChapter 7. Final Corollaries on Logic in Educated People

Section 3. Poetic MoralityChapter 1. Poetic Morality and the Origins of the Common Virtues Taught by Religion through the Institution of Matrimony

Section 4. Poetic Economics, or Household ManagementChapter 1. Household Management in Nuclear FamiliesChapter 2. Extended Families of Family Servants as Essential to the Founding of CitiesChapter 3. Corollaries on Contracts Sealed by Simple ConsentChapter 4. A Principle of Mythology

Section 5. Poetic PoliticsChapter 1. Poetic Politics: The Severely Aristocratic Form of the First CommonwealthsChapter 2. All Commonwealths Arise from Invariable Principles of FiefsChapter 3. Origins of the Census and Public TreasuryChapter 4. The Origins of Roman AssembliesChapter 5. Corollary: Divine Providence Ordains both Commonwealths and the Natural Law of NationsChapter 6. Heroic Politics ContinuedChapter 7. Corollaries on Roman Antiquities, Particularly the Imaginary Monarchy at Rome and the Imaginary Popular Liberty Established by Junius BrutusChapter 8. Corollary on the Heroism of the First Peoples

Section 10. Poetic ChronologyChapter 1. Poetic ChronologyChapter 2. Canon of Chronology for Determining the Origins of Universal History, Which Much Antedate the Monarchy of Ninus, its Traditional Starting Point

Section 2. Discovery of the True HomerIntroductionChapter 1. Inconsistencies and Improbabilities in the Traditional Homer Become Consistent and Necessary in the Homer Discovered HereChapter 2. Homer’s Epics: Two Great Repositories of the Natural Law of the GreeksAppendix: A Rational History of the Dramatic and Lyric Poets

Book 4: The Course of Nations

Introduction

Section 1. Three Kinds of Human Nature

Section 2. Three Kinds of Customs

Section 3. Three Kinds of Natural Law

Section 4. Three Kinds of Government

Section 5. Three Kinds of Language

Section 6. Three Kinds of Symbols

Section 7. Three Kinds of Jurisprudence

Section 8. Three Kinds of Authority

Section 9. Three Kinds of ReasonChapter 1. Divine Reason and Reason of StateChapter 2. Corollary on the Ancient Romans’ Wisdom of StateChapter 3. Corollary: The Fundamental History of Roman Law

Section 11. Three Schools of ThoughtChapter 1. Schools of Thought in Religious, Punctilious, and Civil Ages

Section 12. Further Proofs Drawn from the Properties of Heroic AristocraciesIntroductionChapter 1. The Guarding of BoundariesChapter 2. The Guarding of Social OrdersChapter 3. The Guarding of the Laws

Section 13Chapter 1. Further Proofs Drawn from Mixed Commonwealths which Combine Earlier Governments with Later StatesChapter 2. An Eternal and Natural “Royal Law” By Which Nations Come to Rest in MonarchiesChapter 3. A Refutation of the Principles of Political Theory Based on the System of Jean Bodin

Section 14. Final Proofs Confirming the Course of NationsChapter 1. Punishments, Wars, and the Order of NumbersChapter 2. Corollary: Ancient Roman Law as Serious Epic Poem, and Ancient Jurisprudence as Severe Poetry Containing the First Rough Outlines of Legal Metaphysics; also, the Legal Origins of Greek Philosophy

Book 5: The Resurgence of Nations and the Recurrence of Human Institutions

IntroductionChapter 1. Medieval Barbaric History Illuminated by Ancient Barbaric HistoryChapter 2. The Recurrence of the Invariable Nature of Fiefs, and the Recurrence of Ancient Roman Law in Feudal LawChapter 3. Description of the Ancient and Modern Worlds in the Light of the New Science

Conclusion of the Work

On the Eternal Natural Commonwealth, Best in its Kind, Ordained by Divine Providence